This is an occasional blog mainly related to travel and in particular Perú. Sometimes I will comment on other activities in particular other travel, often in Spain and other South American countries, cycling, salsa and learning Spanish.

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

I have been lucky so far – no health
problems to speak of but following my trip to Cali I have caught my
teacher's cold. Worse, I have a nagging cough and visits to
successive chemists seemed to have yielded opposite ends of the
spectrum – herbal remedies or self administered injections. I
really need an decongestant because the flight to Capurgana turned me
deaf and created real pain.

Otherwise it was an uneventful and fun
flight. The girl climbing aboard ahead of me sported and inflated
tyre-tube to cushion her recently enhance bum and she smiled at me
slightly sheepishly.

benefits of surgery

The landing was more abrupt than I expected and
onto no more than a gravel embedded dirt runway.

Sea Otter 15 seater

Two soldiers failed
to greet us with any enthusiasm but scrutinised our documentation
noting it slowly and meticulously in a book. I was left aside until
last and asked where I was from and how long I would be staying, the
former a bit oddly since he had my passport I his hand – maybe a
trick question? There is actually quite a lot of army presence here
and later I noticed a small bivouac encampment under the trees where
automatic rifles had been left carelessly unattended – then I came
across two soldiers sharing a joint. Generally the soldiers are
young, quiet and amble around in small groups and look pretty
unmenacing – but they do go out into the jungle on night patrol and
can be seen returning purposefully with full kit in the morning.

ready for action?

I was met by Juan Andres and we walked
to the hotel where I was greeted with a cold drink. Capurganar has no
cars or trucks and is peaceful except for the occasional motorbike –
other forms of transport are walk, bike and horse. I actually think I
may be the only guest! - no there are two others but they only stayed
one night – it is the 'low season' they explained – this is not
entirely bad because I feel I need to be in clinical isolation.
Tacacuna Lodge is located alongside what passes for the village green
and was the first holiday hotel here established 35 years ago. This
is both good and bad – it has now been superseded by some more
upmarket competitors nearer the beach but it seems to be an accepted
part of the fabric of the place. By contrast to Medallin where locals
are inquisitive about foreigners here people treat me with polite
indifference – which is fine.

Following a power nap in the hammock on
my cabin terrace I dined on a too salty lunch of soup and fried fish
and then headed off to explore. Turning right at the Caribbean sea I
headed away from Panama and I enjoyed a scenic walk along the coast
until I could go no further, saw leaf-cutting ants, lizards crabs
and fish in pools and I took some snaps of the views.

leaf cutting ants

Returning to the village – it really
needs a deep clean and make over. There are plenty of good parts but
also piles of rubble, glass in the park and just untidiness. After a
throat soothing ice cream I enjoyed a dip in blood warm sea and
happily bobbed and floated to adjacent sounds of bachata and regaton
from a nearby cafe.

Day 2

OK, so it is nearly 7pm in the evening
and the electricity has knocked out for the third time. I have used
plenty of repellent but I think I'm being bitten anyway. Last night
was not the best - I slept fitfully and surfaced a 5.30am. Bouts of
uncontrollable coughing are sapping at my motivation to do stuff but
after breakfast I bought £10 worth of decent medicine and resolved
to get on with the day.

Taking my face mask and video camera I
headed to the beach and was pleasantly surprised at the number of
small fish I could see even quite close to the shore. I played
Jacques Cousteau for more than an hour and then tried filming the
fish since I had recently realized that my cycling video camera is
actually waterproof. This worked out quite well but I tired quickly
and headed back for the sanctuary of my hammock.

In the afternoon I walked the coat in
the other direction and after a couple of miles came across a wacky
house mostly fabricated from driftwood where the owner offered
reasonably priced coffee or lemonade, a quiet place to sit and access
to a cool fresh water pool. It was worth the walk.

The combined effects of illness and
medicine zapped me completely and the rest of the afternoon was
spent suspended from 2 posts on my porch, swaying gently in the non
existent breeze I resumed the prone state after dinner and that was
that.

Days 3 and 4

In the morning I took the launch to
Sapzurro, a smaller prettier town set in a bay and about 20 minutes
away. From there you can head for La Miel which is in Panama. It is
about a 2 mile walk climbing steps to cross the frontier at the top –
It is guarded by the Panamanians and they simply take note of your
passport details – crossing back isn't a problem. La Miel has a
good number of soldiers, probably as many as the towns people which
number about 150. There is a small primary school but older children
of whom I saw 5 cross the border to school Colombia each day. I would
love to see their admissions policy!

La Miel has very nice beaches with
white sand I shared a quite large bay with only maybe 5 others
eventually returning to Sapzurro where I had hoped for a pizza lunch
but due to power cuts settled for el Menu which was surprisingly a
nice curry.

For my last day I resolved to take the
line of least resistance and just hung out at the hotel and on the
beach returning Friday morning on a plane somewhat delayed by a
storm. Overall it would have been a great trip but I just wasn't in a
good shape to enjoy it succumbing to illness, heat and humidity.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

It was super
convenient leaving Medellin for Cali I by way of Juan Pablo II
airport. It is close to my apartment - indeed planes fly over it with
alarming proximity. My Dornier 328 left promptly and the flight of 45
minutes passed uneventfully.

Arriving at Cali I
quickly found shuttle the bus to the bus terminal and then caught a
taxi to Hostel Jovita in the bohemian district of San Antonio. The
Hostel, themed for salsa and yoga offers free group classes in both,
private dance lessons with about 4 different instructors and cycling
tours. Perfect! My room, in close by and quiet annex offered me en
suite simple accommodation at only £12 a night.

San Antonio looks
as if it was the older part of town and seems to be undergoing some
regeneration as a fashionably gentrified zone, mainly residential but
increasingly focused on the chic restaurants, coffee bars and
boutique hotels. There is a nearby park, a few galleries, the usual
corner shops. The climate in Cali is such that you can take a few
beers and empanadas on the street or eat al fresco on the veranda of
small cafes in the balmy evening air.

San Antonio

I have tried group
salsa and Yoga and have enjoyed my first Salsa Caleña lesson with
Francy a lively and fun teacher who I also found on the Cali
Couch-surfers forum. She is very detailed in her expectations pulling
all sorts of faces at my native English lack of rhythm and style but
a good partner and a fantastic dancer. So I've booked a block of 5
lessons.

Francy, dance teacher

By the second
evening all was well with my classes and in the evening I knocked
back a couple of beers, the flavourful dark Apóstol Blocs, in a
super chilled and lovely bar called Toasky.

I began my third
day in Cali with a city cycle tour with Carlos who runs a small tour
business from Jovita's hostal. In truth I'm not sure there is a great
deal to see in Cali. It is a little grimy, quit busy with traffic.
Carlos pointed out various discos - there are loads but only a few
dedicated to salsa. There are a few green parts and a nice park by
the river with statues of cats themed on real women, the girlfriends
of a grand Tom sitting imperiously above his harem.

City cycle tour

park of cats

The rest of my
short break passed pretty well. Francy continued to insist on
perfection which I was unable to muster and for the evening group
session the male instructor schooled us in crossover styles with big
movements and lots of arm and body waving. I probably need to work on
suspending my inhibitions!

Later I had an
overpriced salad and too sweet chocolate cake in a trendy cafe but
the next day a nice crepes breakfast back in Toask cafe which I found
out is also a B@B. Later I visited Ceramics el Palmomar a wonderful
ceramics shop, cafe and garden that is really beautiful and
definitely worth a visit. I bought some nice souvenirs and I hope
they will survive my journey home.

garden of ceramics

I continued to
consolidate my salsa culminating in a group outing to Tin Tin Deo a
lively and fun salsa club with reasonable space in which to dance.
Francy danced with me a couple of times making me look better than I
really am and I performed adequately with other partners - following
a few beers and a margarita all I felt well into it and the club
atmosphere was really great and there were some talented and fast
dancers. But then the club unexpectedly closed at 1am - most of the
rest went on to another club but I folded and shared a taxi back to
the Hostal with 3 others.

The next morning,
nursing a slight headache I decided to walk up the local big hill. It
sports 3 large crosses and an assortment of aerials.

Even at 8.30 it
was getting uncomfortably hot - I trusted to luck that I would be
able to buy a drink en route but it was half way up before the first
walker's rest where an enterprising man had set up shop with a cold
box of gatorade other drinks and fresh fruit. The climb up isn't very
pretty but the views are ok and there was a police presence to add to
the feeling of security for the morning walkers. Although never
dangerous the climb is somewhat arduous with some scrambling over
rocks. At the top there is a small police station, more vendors and a
group of mainly young and buff men working out on weights and benches
provided for public use.

View of Cali from hill of 3 crosses

The descent was quite straightforward and I
arrived back for a late breakfast and a snooze before checking out in
time for my flight back to Medellin

Monday, 14 May 2012

About 15 of us turned up at 6.45 am on this sunny morning for the ride. Leaving my apartment I headed out on Carratera 33 crossing Rio Medellin before looping under the bridge towards the meeting point by the side of the 6 lane autopista, Regional. We went North then East past the centre of the city until we started climbing up through the barrio of Buenos Aires near where Pablo Escobar had built a small town on the proceeds of the drugs cartels and where even now it isn't recommended to cycle alone.

puncture stop 1 Buenos Aires

We kept it super steady but as soon as the road headed steeply upwards past some new social housing apartments the group parted and as usual I was deselected by the stronger guys, forming a smaller group of 4 and eventually climbing to the 9.2 miles to Santa Elena a small but vibrant farming community high above the city.

We soon had breakfast from an open air wood burning parilla and I enjoyed chicharon, arepa con queso and chocolate caliente. We then continued on through lanes not unlike Surrey's before joining the main road to Las Palmas where we descended for a further 9 miles at up to 40mph and back to the city. Unusually there were 5 punctures over the morning but even so we arrived back early by mid morning since it was Mother's day in Colombia and people had to make customary visits, buy cakes and flowers etc. The Strava feed is here

Friday, 11 May 2012

By now I have had ample opportunity to
think about my life getting around Medellin so here are a few
observations.

Roads: Generally in the city
they are in fair but not great condition. There are a few pot holes
and lumps and bumps and not a great deal of evidence of repair.
Further out of the city the main routes, for example towards Bogota and
to the airport are quite smooth and can be safely descended by cycle
at speeds of around 40mph. Sometimes lanes are divided by silly
plastic posts, mainly on bends, presumably to stop drivers dodging
back and forth in the lanes – these can appear without warning if
you are overtaking a large vehicle – beware! Secondary roads around
Medellin can occasionally give way to sections of compacted mud or
sometimes the heavy rains dislodge a large pile of mud blocking the
road, and in one case that I saw causing an accident. Marks 7/10

Traffic controls: There could
easily be a saving in the cost of white paint by
eliminating pedestrian crossings – traffic takes no notice of them
and as a pedestrian you may as well ignore them! Traffic lights are
generally but not always observed. The green to red ratio is
substantially in favour of traffic rather than pedestrians and the somewhat
random phasing can leave you stranded on narrow central reservations
whilst traffic flies by within inches. Also, pedestrians are rarely
protected from traffic turning into a road even though it is being
crossed with the benefit of a green man light - so peripheral
vision, twitchy eyes and the ability to dodge and sprint are a must
for safe crossing. On some roads, for example Las Palmas towards the
airport police stand watching at roughly 2 kilometre intervals and
cars therefore exercise reasonable restraint. Marks 6/10

Quality of driving: Take nothing
for granted, cars generally fail to indicate, they lane hop
incessantly, motor bikes, of which there are many, dash in and out
of cars. Cars forking right will cut across slower traffic,
particularly cyclists and one needs to actively signal intentions to
stay in a lane – this is probably the most dangerous aspect for
cyclists. It isn't all bad – although there is some impatient
tooting of horns some drivers do give way to cyclists; few if any are
aggressive and in several weeks I have been here I have only seen a
couple of occasions where words were exchanged. Marks 6.5/10

Public Transport: There has been
a heavy investment in infrastructure and there is clear connection
drawn between the quality of life and improvements in safe journeys.
The Metro is the central plank of this. There is one main line
running North/South and a shorter cross line with a coupe of cable
cars that head up into the barrios. It is safe, clean and efficient –
people don't eat, drink or litter in the trains and there are helpful
announcements at stations even extolling passengers to give up seats
to travellers who seem fatigued and advising of the social and health
benefits of using a handkerchief. It is more or less fully wheel
chair accessible and it is well used by most people but not
noticeably by the better off.

Metro Map

Metrocable to Santo Domingo

Metro

Metroplus is also good and being
further developed – these are bendy buses travelling in mainly in
dedicated lanes and stopping at special stations with music playing,
CTV systems and sliding doors.

MetroPlus Station

To be honest the rest of the bus
system is a bit shaky – it comprises of several private lines and
it is difficult to determine where buses are going – it isn't just
me, locals are also confused but there is a web site which shows
routes and can be helpful. Interactive Bus Map Most buses stop running around 9 pm but
start pretty early. Fares are cheap, around £0.75 and there is a
civic card that can be loaded at stations and used on the metro and
metroplus. Also some fares are integrated between trains and buses,
for example to outlying towns reached via hub stations. There are
also large 2 bus terminals, North and South for longer journeys where you can find
buses to most destinations near and far. Sometimes there are taxi
colectivos, again at reasonable prices. I have been to the North
terminal and it is very good and well organised and seemingly well
policed and safe. Marks 8.5/10

Taxis: There is an over supply
of yellow cabs and many wait a long time for a passenger. They have
meters and are relatively cheap – a 10– 5 minute ride may cost
around £3. I like them. Most of the drivers are nice and helpful –
you are not expected to tip but I do and they are always very
grateful – a couple of my drivers have seemed a bit coked up but I have fairly
high confidence in most of them. Generally there are no seat belts in the rear
and it is advisable to lock your door, keep valuables out of sight
and wind your window most of the way up. You can also get your hotel or hostel/bar etc. to call a cab in which case you will each have a code number to exchange so as to enhance security. Marks 8/10

Cycling: People
here cycle for sport and as an economical form of transport although there are
far fewer bikes than motorbikes. There are some helpful cycle paths
but they tend to be used by pedestrians and aren't always well
signposted. Large drain covers, of which there are many have widely
spaced bars and need to be avoided.

Cycling Hazard

On Sundays and holidays the Ciclovea is opened and there are 2 lanes and about 15 miles of fairly
uninterrupted cycling but beware of erratic children on BMXs and
skaters who also share this space. Otherwise at weekends sports
cyclist head out of town in their droves both for mountain and road
cycling. Leaving the city mostly necessitates a steep and long climb
but the route towards Barbosa is mostly downhill and towards Caldas
the hill is gradual but then steep.

Road towards Barbosa

There is a dedicated and free
criterium circuit of 0.9 of a mile and a cool outdoor velodrome –
both of which you are free to enter if there are no events. If like
me you are a keen cyclist, Medellin's surrounds rather than the city
itself are a major cycling attraction and you can easily hook up with
local groups – I have been adopted by club Mariela and I love it.
Marks 9/10

Velodrome

Not an exhaustive
resume but hopefully helpful – feel free to get in touch if you
need more cycling specific information.